


Observing

by sugacandy



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, M/M, Rinharu Week 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 21:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5264282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugacandy/pseuds/sugacandy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rinharu Week 2015: Day 1<br/>Red Prompt: Reincarnation<br/>-<br/>Rin and Haru's lives together, as observed by a tree.<br/>(This is not as weird as it seems, I promise)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Observing

The tree stands on a hill, overlooking a bay. It’s a pretty old tree, bark gnarled and twisted like some old crone’s fingernails, a trunk so thick you’d need two people’s armspans to fully encircle it. But still, every year, with clockwork regularity, it blooms with soft pink blossoms that have lovers flocking to picnic underneath it, like butterflies to nectar.   
The tree itself was planted by a pair of lovers.  
When it was just a sapling, it had been tugged from the earth by grubby (yet gentle) fingers, and taken up to the hilltop, on an evening almost 300 years ago. The tree can still recall the faces of the two youngsters that had carefully placed it into the hole they had dug together: one slightly taller than the other, with bright red hair the colour of the sunset, and eyes to match- the other with soft-looking dark hair and eyes as blue as the sea below. The redhead had smiled at the other boy, and, with a trembling voice, had said: “While I’m gone, come up here and water this, okay? As long as it’s alive, I’m alive too, think of it like that. He had stopped, trying to hold back tears, then spoken again. “C’mon, Haru, it’s not so bad. Only 4 weeks, then I’ll be back to irritate you again-I promise.”  
Haru, as the other seemed to be called, nodded, burying his face in the taller’s shoulder.   
“I hate this stupid war. I hate it, Rin, and you’ll be fighting in it, you might be hurt, and I can’t stand it-!” The rest of the sentence was lost in Haru’s muffled sobbing, tears sprinkling the ground where the tree had just been planted.   
Haru had indeed returned every day, and had watered the tree, often staying for a while, looking out to sea- maybe to where Rin was, the young tree had guessed. Then one day, Haru had come a little later than normal, arriving just as the setting sun began to paint the horizon with blood. He had stumbled up the hill, and had fallen to his knees beside the little sapling. He hadn’t spoken, but the soundless shuddering of his shoulders was evidence enough of what must have happened.   
The tree, still young and inexperienced, thought that the world must be very cruel.   
Now, it thinks, as it watches the pair underneath it boughs, maybe the world was not so cruel after all. The tree knows of the existence of reincarnation- certainly, it has seen the same faces a hundred years apart- but never, before Rin and Haru, had it seen two souls with a bond so strong that even death could not break it. So, as the tree looks down upon the redhead and the dark-haired boy, it decides that the wold could not be entirely heartless.  
The tree watched Haru and Rin throughout four separate lifetimes. It sees them as children, running up the hill together, holding hands; as teenagers, kissing awkwardly under the blossoms; and as adults, leaning against its trunk, looking out to the bay. In every life they have, they are together.   
The world is a good place.   
Yes, there is sadness in it: Rin left with tears pouring down his face in their second life, when Haru dies before him- but there is also great joy: the shy grin on Haru’s face in their third life, as he accepts Rin’s offered ring.   
The mere fact that their love can stretch from life into death into life again is proof enough of the essential kindness of creation, the tree thinks, as it shakes its branches just enough to create a storm of petals to rain down on the pair below.   
It knows there will come a time when it is no longer there to watch over them- but for now, it is content to watch for them every year, amid the crowd of lovers that come every spring to celebrate underneath its boughs- they’re always there, be it as kids, adults or old men, and they always sit leaning against the trunk, looking out across the bay, unaware that they’ve sat there a thousand times before.

**Author's Note:**

> IT'S RINHARU WEEK!   
> well, hi. Thanks for reading! This is my first work on here, so reviews would be very much appreciated.   
> Come find me on tumblr under the same username, if you feel so inclined.  
> -nanasedolphin


End file.
